A Modest Proposal: Hello, Google!

From writer, director, producer, and WGA member Ed Decter.

Does anyone know someone high up at GOOGLE? Out of all of our members, someone had to go to Stanford with one of the Google guys.
Google could save us.

The 220 billion dollar corporate juggernaut is proof that there is money to be made on the Internet. We don�t need any �further study� to determine this. Google was founded on intellectual property that changes the way we see the world � which is exactly the business we are all in. Why don�t we cut out the middle men (the AMPTP) and deal directly with Google? Send Patrick and the negotiating committee to create a deal where we can all write projects for Google (with all guild minimums, health, pension, etc.) and we get the digital use rates we are seeking (a percentage of the ad revenue) that is generated by the projects we put on YouTube. Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz recently did a series that aired on MySpace. That particular entity is owned by Fox, so we don�t like them. But nobody owns Google.

Maybe the Alliance is right. Maybe the ad revenue for a new internet series on Google would be minimal. That would mean the creators of the content wouldn�t make very much money. But maybe the Alliance is lying and the creators would reap huge rewards. Think how many clips of THE OFFICE people have watched on the internet. What if a brilliant comedian like Steve Carell and a phenomenal showrunner like Greg Daniels got paid union rates to create a show directly for Google? Do you think advertisers would stay away from the content because it hadn�t aired first on NBC? Does the AMPTP know that for the first time since the advent of television, college students are no longer bringing TV sets to campus? They are getting all their entertainment directly from THE INTERNET. Only the networks think we need the networks.

As na�ve as this all sounds � wouldn�t this be the DEEPEST FEAR of the AMPTP? If Google wanted, they could scoop up THE ENTIRE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. We are all available. Why do you think Sumner Redstone pulled all of the Viacom content off YouTube? Why did Jeff Zucker pull all NBC�s content from iTunes? Other corporations were making money from the content that Viacom and Universal owned � and that we created.

If Patrick and the negotiation committee actually got on a plane and flew up to Mountain View (world Google headquarters), that could be the first step into forcing the Alliance to make a deal.

So those of you who have Google friends � get them on the phone with Patrick and the negotiating committee. We don�t have to wait for Nick Counter to make a deal, let�s make a deal of our own.
Ed Decter